Wow. How can you ask? Who is more fascinating than Obama... by which I mean the entire story of everyone relating to Obama?
He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime, perhaps. Simultaneously, he's boring! Which is interesting.
Who do you find more interesting? Romney's not that interesting.
I don't think Presidents should be chosen based on interestingness, but blogging is based on interestingness.
May 14, 2012
"What fascinates Althouse about Obama?"
Asks ricpic. And I answer:
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He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime
I stopped keeping track of that particular category after Randy Of The Redwoods ruined the curve for everyone that would follow.
Nor should voting be based on "interestingness."
and Presidencies should be based on Comptency and Leadership
where does that leave us?
Interesting in an " Oh. I'm getting mugged by a mugger with a gun. I hope he doesn't shoot me after I give all my stuff." kind of way or the Interesting in a Look a strange bug let's see what the strange bug does!" kind of way?
Most of us who don't depend on a public paycheck find him interesting in the first way. Anybody who finds him interesting in the second way is kind of a douche.
Who do you find more interesting? Romney's not that interesting.
I don't think you're looking hard enough. You're just more in tune with Obama's struggles.
He's a two-bit politician and a liar. They're a dime a dozen. He's done nothing interesting in his life except be born. And lie some more.
Obama is a lot less interesting if you see him as lying.
I mean, you could explore what motivates the left to keep distracting from the economy, but I suppose that's Rush Limbaugh's expertise.
"Obama is a lot less interesting if you see him as lying."
Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story.
I recommend Edward Klein's book for those of you not in love with BO. I've read some of the reviews and they confirm what we conservatives already knew.
Who is more fascinating than Obama...?
You sound like those professors who go around saying how fascinating they find their undergraduate students to be.
The only Obama-related fascination I've encountered should more properly be called perplexity, as in How the fuck did this clown get elected president?
Of course, it's only meant as a rhetorical question. Everybody knows the answer.
"I mean, you could explore what motivates the left to keep distracting from the economy, but I suppose that's Rush Limbaugh's expertise."
Well, it's the subject of my first blog post today, so what are you talking about?
And it's scarcely a difficult issue... what motivates them???
The larger Obama story is interesting. Part of what makes it interesting is that Obama the man seems totally ordinary and uninteresting. That is, part of what makes the obama story so interesting is the fact that there is an Obama story at all.
""I mean, you could explore what motivates the left to keep distracting from the economy, but I suppose that's Rush Limbaugh's expertise.””
Not to mention John Derbyshire. Wow...just...wow.
I see it more like kcom: "He's a two-bit politician and a liar. They're a dime a dozen."
Interesting? WTF?
Obama is a dorm room bull shit artist. And a front man for president-by-committee.
Dime a dozen.
What is interesting is that the power-worshiping lewinsky press was able to take a glib, dorm room bullshitter and successfully sell him to the masses.
(I blame various decades of repubes and the noble House of Bush, but that's another story.)
The mix of metrosexual and responsible father and conman and gaydar-sounding pretty boy John Edwards is way more interesting than the public-relations mouthpiece that is Obama.
@ChipS: You need to include the entire sentence, including the very important qualifier that follows: by which I mean the entire story of everyone relating to Obama?
Look how crazy he makes people -- even moreso than Bush (on this blog, at least)! That is very interesting.
I can see how Obama might be interesting- but wouldn't Bill Clinton be more interesting, by that standard? I'd argue that Clinton's strengths and weaknesses make him a far more interesting character than Obama.
I think a much more interesting question is what motivated people to vote for him?
What the hell are you talking about? What has the man ever done that's interesting? He's done nothing in his life other than get elected President, which was really not his doing either. He could have lived his entire life in his Mom's cellar except for the part where people hire him for jobs that he's entirely unqualified for.
His entire thing is being a "clean and articulate" Black man that other people could use like a "Save the Whales" sticker on their Prius.
He's a place holder, a symbol, and nothing more. Never fought other men, faced death, or saved a life. Never climbed a mountain, discovered anything or toiled hard and long to achieve something great. Never sacrificed, except for those few moments when he had to listen to someone else talk about themselves. In reality, he's just a famous, slacker. Grow up.
If he wasn't black, he would be unknown and unaccomplished.
Nixon was very interesting. Almost Shakespearian. Lots of good movies made with him as a character: Nixon, Dick, Secret Honor, All the President's Men, The Killing Fields, The Parallax View, The Ice Storm, Forrest Gump, The Buena Vista Social Club, Point Break, Maid in Manhattan, Tricia's Wedding, Sleeper, Missing, The Big Lebowski, Shampoo, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. [copied the list from Slate when I went searching for some examples beyond my favorites].
Want to bet that a comparable list will be made about Obama? I'd assume you want odds.
The Obama image IS interesting.
The poor guy has worked himself silly trying to control that image with very few flaws that are not covered over with a smooth smile and a transition into one of the educated liberal's favorite Nehustans. He has Chris Matthews in a permanent restless leg syndrome.
But remember the con is still setting fires at the north end of town so the gang can rob the banks at the south end of town.
Romney is actually really interesting when you learn about him. He just doesn't toot his own horn all that much. I'll take Romney shutting down his investment bank and asking staffers to help search for a missing daughter trumps anything Obama ever did in terms of interest or coolness.
I am suprised that anyone finds O interesting. Nothing the man has said or done since about 2007 has suprised me in the least. Maybe the interesting thing is your and others perception of him? That actually is somewhat interesting - he was maybe the first tabula rosa candidates I know of, upon which whatever post-racial, post-partisan, post-modern aspirations anyone felt could be written.
As for myself, I sided with his former pastor Wright who said "He's a politician, doing what politicians do." Which is exactly what he is - he makes Jim Hacker look like Winston Churchill.
Althouse is having an off day.
Actually...when was the last time that the more interesting ... of the two political candidates...lost the presidency?
I think it’s been a while. Dukakis vs Bush Senior was a snorefest so that may have been a tie.
Definitely interesting, in the sense of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
@MadisonMan--I did include the rest of the quote it at first, but it seemed unnecessary, b/c I haven't encountered anyone (except Althouse) who "relates to" Obama in a manner that incorporates any degree of fascination.
I have met plenty of people who use him as a blank screen upon which they project their own idiosyncratic beliefs, though.
I waver b/w finding that scary and finding it sad.
I think what we have here is liberal projection.
"He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime, perhaps."
I'm not normally critical of the Professor here, but this statement flabbergasts me. Obama is interesting? How so? Remove race, and he's a standard Chicago machine politician.
I wonder how much of this characteristic is not any intrinsic property of being "interesting", but rather projection? Obama is almost always analyzed through either the lens of conservative views on liberalism or liberal views on what a US President from their party should be and do. Even issues that are specificaly about Obama - the long refuted "Birther" issue, the latest "Man Eats Dog" trivia - gets talked about through those very same channels. I've seen so little discussion about him that I'm astounded that anyone can claim to find him interesting or analyzable on his own characteristics.
The sad part is that, an analysis I made during the election - the fact that he's nothing more than a screen for everyone else to project their own visions on - still stands true today. So any claim that he's interesting catches my attention. I'm immediately of the opinion that this characteristic is less about him, and more about the narratives around him. What else is there that could even remotely be considered "interesting"? It's certainly not the man himself.
So you would rather listen to someone lie to you for a few hours, than tell you the truth?
Such a product of the 60's.
FDR was interesting. So was LBJ and Nixon. Obama, more contrived than actually interesting. Interesting presidents are great for conversation and for historical books and novels. But boring is far batter for the actual business of governing.
Ann, are you watching Obama's address to the graduating class of Barnard, happening now. Might be interesting.
Drunks, addicts, dealers, derelicts, the downtrodden and depressed, con men, thieves, sociopaths, murderers and the mercurial, the missing and dead are all interesting.
Solidity, reliability, steadfastness, integrity and virtue are all boring as hell.
The Devil outshines God. The predator is more fascinating than his prey. In movies, the bad guy is the most interesting; the hero is but a ghost.
Ann, are you watching Obama's address to the graduating class of Barnard, happening now. Might be interesting.
If half-truths, outright lies, and crass attempts at pandering interest you, then probably it is.
Chip, well Romney did his pandering this weekend, so now it's Obama's turn.
Nixon was also interesting. Gary Willis called his biography of Nixon, "Nixon Agonistes."
No one would have written "[Gerald Ford] Agonisted," or even "Reagan Agonistes." Perhaps these politicians' lives had some drama, but not the sort of intense, personal struggle that goes with "agonistes."
So, perhaps Althouse means Obama is "interesting" in the sense of "Obama agonistes"?
While there may be a heroic struggle inside Obama regarding race and his origins, many of us just see him as a common (if unusually bright) dishonest Chicago politician.
Win or lose this 2012 election, Mr Obama presidency will be fodder for sociologists and political scientists for the next hundred years. All of which can be juxaposed by BT Barnum's aphorism about suckers born every minute (I think he said that, but I could be making it up)
Althouse,
You must fascinated by infomercials on how to get rich, lose weight, and find love all without leaving the house.
Obama is fascinating because he was elected President even though his wafer thin experience exceeded only one other thing - his humililty.
Allie--Romney promised free contraceptives for evangelicals?
How disappointing.
"I don't always ruin an entire nation, but when I do, I prefer the United States of America."
I've always said that BHO is John Edwards-lite (i.e a left-leaning, smooth talker with a pretty face and little to show by way of accomplishment). The only reason he was noticed at all and got anywhere in 2008 was because of his skin color. To reuse a phrase, if he was white he would have been just another one of a dime a dozen. You'll notice nobody felt compelled to vote for John Edwards out of guilt - and thus he went nowhere.
Chip, those sluts. So sexually repressed by church elders for all those years, they will most definitely need contraception once they get their groove on.
"He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime, perhaps."
The more I think about it, the more I just don't see it. He's the topic of much discussion; He's the President! He invokes strong passions because the country's a mess and 1/2 of us think we have an incompetent running the show. He garners intense support because the other 1/2 feel the need to validate their electoral choice.
But unless you argue that incompetent = interesting, I just don't see it.
I see it more like kcom: "He's a two-bit politician and a liar. They're a dime a dozen."
This.
And everything he wrote (or 'wrote' depending on who you think wrote his books) seems to be narcissitic drivel. That's the opposite of interesting to me.
I really find him just the opposite: the most boring President of my life.
He does not seem to struggle with ideas or question those dropped in his lap as a kid. He only struggles with how others might see him and how to play that correctly. Incredibly boring.
He's interesting in the way that the husband of a spousal-abused friend is. You're compelled to explore what the hell is it about this guy that makes her so damned stupid?
Obama is interesting in the sense that he convinced 53% of the electorate that a unqualified former community organizer could lead the nation.
It will also be intetresting to see if those same voters pull their heads out of their ass this November.
Your method of reading Obama is the one I used to read "things" and "objects" in my thesis on Emerson.
Both Obama and Romney are interesting. But both are sort of predictable.
Obama's doing the third-way/ mixed-race stuff that was pretty typical of the late 80s early 90s in this book. Seen it so many times before blah blah I'm an Oreo oh no I have to agonize over identity and nationality. He's your typical highly educated, relatively intelligent, perfectionist, meritocracy aspirational middle class type. He can read situations well and is a better politician then Romney.
Romney - He's the must seem friendly/bland type. Wants power and authority. Likes order and hierarchy. Typical western executive from the 70s and 80s. He grew up elite and was jacked into the system--it's hurting his ability to be a good politician. He's never had to pander and is used to being in charge in a corporate environment.
One of the more interesting things about Romney is how long he takes a stand on something. His stance on gay adoption last a whole day. Whatya expect from Olympic Organizer!
You hate Romney. His position on gay adoption has nothing to do with it.
(h/t Internet Commenting for Dummies, by garage mahal.)
Have to agree with cubanbob. Zero is only interesting if you don't want to look past the fakery.
The "Uh, Um" stuff isn't the mark of somebody with a lot to say.
I recall he was getting off a plane someplace during the '08 campaign, trying to look as "cool" as possible, sauntering down the steps, clearly playing to the camera.
160 years ago, people found John Fremont interesting because he was a bastard. Well, Zero is, too, if you think about it.
"He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime, perhaps."
A caveat, madam - the most interesting "black" character. Without his caramel coloring, he is nothing.
If you find this stammering, ignorant mountebank "interesting," watching paint dry must give you near-orgasmic thrills.
"Whatya expect from Olympic Organizer!"
We should note that, his other faults aside, Romney can at least organize a sentence better than you, dullard.
When you think about it, a lot of our recent presidents (and even major party candidates) are pretty interesting (especially if you count the filthy rich and/or well connected (Stevenson, Kennedy, Bush, Bush, Gore, Romney) as interesting.) By my reckoning, the only relatively normal people to get one of the two big nominations for president since WWII are Truman, McGovern, Ford, and Carter. Admittedly, NO ONE who wakes up one day and decides to run for president is normal. Even the "normal" list includes someone who was a key player on two undefeated national champ football teams and someone wh flew 35 B-24 missions over Germany.
Zero is interesting. Many here are allowing their dislike or lack of respect for the Zero interfere with their logic. Half of the subjects cited argue the other way:
1. If he wasn't black .... LOL. But he is black. Wait, he's not even black. He's half black. And his father is from ... some weird far away place ... and maybe not even a citizen [cue you-know-who].
2. He's incompetent. Well, sort of, yeah, at the things it takes to be a good President. That's interesting. How did such an incompetent no nothing get to be Pres ??? See 1 above.
3. He's a liar. Well, duh. Con man gotta lie to con. Con men are interesting - see "The Sting."
4. He's built an entire career on being a "clean and articulate" black person. That's interesting. I know other guys who've done this at a lower level. It's infuriating, but interesting.
See how that works?
Quiet competency is kind of boring. We should look for boring in our next President, no?
[Obama's] the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime, perhaps. Simultaneously, he's boring! Which is interesting.
Please. If he was commenter here you'd hardly know he was alive. The only thing that's fascinating about him is how you and other liberals have propped him up all these years.
chicken little,
I don't think you're looking hard enough [at Romney]. You're just more in tune with Obama's struggles.
Some "struggles," with people like Ann so gosh darned fascinated by him. It would be so much easier if they would all line up, give the guy a blow job, and leave the rest of us out of it, but noooo! We'll also have to listen to this bullshit while they wait their turn. It's maddening.
But I agree with you about Romney - he's a member of a cult and Ann sees nothing interesting. That's because she accepts the superficial surface they project, brilliant inquisitive mind that she is, while I can go on for YEARS about how fucking bizarre he and his cult are. I mean, really - excuse me? Something's wrong with this picture, or Ann's glasses, or,...something.
Do you remember AFTER Obama's election, when Ann said "The entire plan to bring Obama into office depended on the glorification of the man, whose actual experience was so bizarrely limited that it took some nerve to claim to be ready. Magic was required. The cult grew up not as he held power and needed to respond to a crisis. The cult was the campaign to bring him into power. It depended on our projecting all sorts of hopes and dreams onto him, and he knew it. Inside, he may have felt embarrassed by the whole enterprise, but he'd figured out that it could work, and he was right."?
These are the words of someone PROUD to be a sucker. A member of the cult. Listen to her:
Now, I think this worked because he really is a solid, normal person who remained grounded in the middle of all this craziness.
I ask you, what "solid, normal person" starts a cult? Is a member of a cult? Is up all night with fucking Oprah while his wife lays in bed next to him, fuming? Ann finally ended THAT bullshit with these words:
"The trickery is over."
Sure, but the denial is never-ending.
How Ann, or Oprah, can criticize Reille Hunter is beyond me,...
Obama is interesting in that he is made in the USA.. (I'm not talking about his birthplace)
In other words, Obama is not "self made".
That's why its so apparently easy for those around him to speak for him.. Biden, his wife, Holder.. you name'm, all share a propensity to get ahead of him.
Interesting?
It depends entirely on who is looking.
Ann Althouse,
Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story.
No, you're not a NewAger.
Where in the world would I ever get that from,...?
Come Nov. BO is going to lose by a landslide. A lot of ill-informed voters have learned their lesson, four years later a little bit wiser.
I've read quite enough. Now look, rednecks, if you are going to denigrate the president of the United States by using coinage then had just get your coinages straight and make up your mind if he a two bit politician, twenty-five cents each, see bit money, or is he a dime a dozen, .8333 cents each? There is a big difference, and for Pete's sake don't use both coinages for the same politician in the same sentence.
"Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story."
- Ann Althouse
"It's almost like a cosmic joke to fall in love with someone who's living a big lie."
- Reille Hunter
I want a star on the fridge of life, Goddamnit,...
Obama is interestingn in the way of the Chinese curse 'May you live in interesting times'. Romney is boring in the way you like boring because you don't enjoy having to scavenge for food in garbage dumps.
It's still about the economy.
get your coinages straight
A wooden nickel has the saving grace of being entertaining. I'll go with "slug" myself - a phony piece used for cheating.
Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story.
I think liars are boring and useless to talk to because at the end of your conversation you have accomplished nothing at all because it wasn't real. You have wasted your time. What is the point, then?
How can someone be interesting when you have to discard everything they say as unreliable?
"He is the most interesting character I've seen emerge in my lifetime."
Bob Dylan weeps.
Interesting to a lefty academic. A black guy whose subjects and verbs agree! A great speechifier using black preacher cadence without the God part! Harvard! Columbia!
And an insurance policy to boot: half white. Kansas!
Well, he isnt interesting. He is just another one of the hustler brothers who has hustled the nation using the language of guilt and academic bullshit to pull it off. And like most hustlers he had you asking questions about yourself and not about him.
Ah, all the interesting things about Obama, are reasons not to vote for him, his paucity of achievement, his total ignorance of what has worked in the last 30 years of policy, his left wing associations,
Bob_R said...
Nixon was very interesting. Almost Shakespearian. Lots of good movies made with him as a character: Nixon, Dick, Secret Honor, All the President's Men, The Killing Fields, The Parallax View, The Ice Storm, Forrest Gump, The Buena Vista Social Club, Point Break, Maid in Manhattan, Tricia's Wedding, Sleeper, Missing, The Big Lebowski, Shampoo, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. [copied the list from Slate when I went searching for some examples beyond my favorites].
Want to bet that a comparable list will be made about Obama? I'd assume you want odds.
----------------------
TDR was interesting. FDR as well. Same with JFK, LBJ, Clinton, and Reagan. All consequential men deserving of great biographies and a continuing presence in our culture and lore.
Nixon is that special case of a great man with great flaws. LBJ was worse, perhaps FDR...but they avoided the Great Fall. As the decades go by, Nixon will be treated better by historians in light of his great, mostly wise, consequential acts.
Eisenhower and HW Bush were dull, but no one can deny their achievements.
Leaving Ford, Carter, Dubya, and Obama as the runts of the litter. No movies. Each lucky if they have any fans or biographers decades out.
This strikes me as is hilarious.
I can see the hardest nosed Commenters here getting legal opinions ready on how they can effectively ban Ann Althouse from The Althouse Blog for heretical speech.
If Denial is a River in Egypt, then Narrow Minded must be a River in Wisconsin.
Nice 1:46 post by MIchael.
It sums up how I see Obama as well.
The only thing marginally interesting about this guy are two sets of unsealed divorce records in Illinois. If it weren't for those, and the machinations behind their release into the media domain, most of us wouldn't even know who Barack Obama is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_lX_-l14B0&feature=related
Jimmy Cliff at age 14 inventing ska.
Perhaps those "fascinated" by Obama are simply "fascinated" by their own "fascination." IOW, it's all about them, the perfect mirror to delve into themselves some more. The subtlety! The stability! The stability of the mind that recognizes such subtlety! The subtlety of the mind that recognizes such stability! In the midst of CHAOS and CULTISHNESS NO LESS!
Sorry, but.... boomers. I gotta say the youth make less excuses for themselves on this count. The ex-swooners may or may not vote for him again, but I don't hear all the reflective rationalizing of their former stance.
Even better. Interesting in serial killer kind of way.
The interesting part is how people respond to him.
Unless he has himself to talk about he is really a boring person.
But the personas people envelope him with is fascinating.
There is nothing there except an almost pathological ability to sense what people want to see and then becoming that person.
A Zelig for the new century.
What compelled you, Ann, to entrust your vote to him?
Barf. Who don't I find more interesting than Obama. Other than being an elitist, left-wing con man, which I find boring, he's done almost nothing himself.
For beginners, I find Thomas Massie infinitely more interesting than Obama. And, he's genuinely smart. I go to the YMCA and talk with people I find more interesting than Obama. The grocery clerk is more interesting.
He's your typical, predictable, conceited, condescending left wing snot.
I find Obama interesting, because he wrote, "I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher)..."
...and because he effectively nationalized the student loan industry and most of the auto industry.
Now, consider: "A Bark Boa Mac" is an anagram for "Barack Obama". Can there be any doubt that MacDonald's is next on his list?
"The only thing marginally interesting about this guy are two sets of unsealed divorce records in Illinois. If it weren't for those, and the machinations behind their release into the media domain, most of us wouldn't even know who Barack Obama is."
Seven of Nine is responsible for the 21st Century bankruptcy of the former United States of America?
We have been assimilated!
I find reading through her analysis of this con man boring. He has not done anything to deserve that kind of attention, cheating his way to presidency may be close. But he had a lot of help there too. May be this is another way Althouse rationalizes her vote for Obama.
Both Romney and Obama are bland. Obama's blandness is viewed as reassuring. In a black man, blandness is like wearing glasses or a sweater vest. It shows a willingness to merge with bourgeoise white culture. Blandness is almost an accomplishment... Romney's blandness is boring. In a Mormon, blandness is the default affect. Mormons are not known for their colorful personalities......Romney is fully homogenized. He doesn't seem to have any divided feelings or loyalties. His blandness is bone deep. Obama, on the other hand, seems self conscious and aware of all sorts of feelings that for most of us are reflexive. I don't know if he's the most interesting, but he's certainly the most introspective of recent Presidents. His blandness is a kind of mask.
Interestingly, the media's/Obama campaign's attacks are making Romney more interesting than he has been since I first took notice of him in 2008.
First, he's the kind of dad who just ties the dog cage to the top of the car and gets on with the trip;
Then he's kinda feisty and prankster-ish in high school (bully goes WAY to far to describe him. And even "bully" is just the latest cupcake cause for the left to get in a snit about);
NOW, on Drudge, Obama has called him a vampire. What with the popularity of the vampire genre these days, not sure I would actually go there...
The attacks will just serve to remind us why we, in fact, like guys like Romney.
By November, Romney will have grown while Obama just keeps shrinking, a la the Reno driveway speech. Between that and the gay-lo bestowed on him by the media, he can't shrink much further.
Meanwhile, I have always found Obama exceedingly dull. I think soon the Dems/media are going to freak out and discover it for themselves (maybe not until the day after election day, but they will.)
Recently some tiny morsels have finally appeared that might help flesh out his extremely shallow persona.
But with Obama, there is no "there" there.
Yes Obama is interesting. In the same fashion Hitler is interesting.
Would Romney have been more interesting to you if a ghostwriter had made up composites about his boarding school pranks, life with Ann and the boys and don't forget dog Seamus and so on. Yeah, he would have had to make up a lot of stuff. You think you know Romney but you don't. You think you know Obama because he(or someone else) wrote some fiction of a life story. You don't know anything. All you have done is fall for the propaganda.
traditionalguy said...
I can see the hardest nosed Commenters here getting legal opinions ready on how they can effectively ban Ann Althouse from The Althouse Blog for heretical speech.
I don't see that at all. It's just that she and others saw something in Obama in the past that others didn't see. Whether it was real or an apparition seems to be her theme.
What's more important is where is this man Obama leading us now. Because he's still in charge.
Whither goest thou, ghost?
As much as I detest Zero, I'm not ready to compare him to Hitler.
Hitler, now that guy was interesting.
then Narrow Minded must be a River in Wisconsin.
So narrow-minded that their dangling earrings get tangled in each other.
What's interesting is
1. They way Obama's been marketed;
2. How people see what they want to see in Obama;
3. The intersection of these two categories.
I suspect, but don't know (see #2), that Obama is like Oz the Great and Terrible (Ozbama) and that behind the green (heheheh) curtain of marketing is a little man of only ordinary interest.
What is interesting is that Obama and Bill Ayers pretend not knowing each other except as "guys in the neighborhood."
Now, we have two people stating they know that Bill Ayers' parents paid Obama's tuition at Columbia, and we know they had offices on the same floor of a building in S. Chicago during his "community organizer" years. You put that together with the TV interviews with the old Weatherman crew that has shown on PBS several times and presumably are still available from PBS, then you really have something "interesting" to ponder.
In the past century I would put Churchill as the most interesting world leader. Obama would be in the top 10, but not the top 5.
@Madisonman:
then Narrow Minded must be a River in Wisconsin.
So narrow-minded that their dangling earrings get tangled in each other.
5/14/12 2:39 PM
---------------
Very funny.
Well, crap, I just read the next post down. Obama metaphor generator iz in mah head, writin mah comments.
I found Bill Clinton's use of a cigar to be interesting. To say the least.
As a psychological study Zero is a goddamn goldmine. We have here the ultimate character from a Dr. Suess book, in which everyone that wants to can write themselves into Zeros shoes, much like the kids that read Dr. Suess picture themselves as the kids in the books.
A tabla rasa writ larger than life itself by dint of his presidency. Those mature enough to see past the mirror image are bored with Zero. Those mature enough to just see that other people are just seeing themselves are frustrated with the childishness, and those who are egocentric in their development see only themselves reflected back.
I was frustrated by the people who couldn't see past the image of themselves in Zero too, for a long time. But I've seen him for what he is for a few months...he's just a man, with some intelligence, but a lot of Daddy issues. He's afraid to stand up to other world leaders for fear that they will leave him like his father, and eventually his mother did. He comes across as aloof because he is trying to keep from being hurt. A very fragile psyche. Because of his childhood bouncing around from society to society, he learned to become a chameleon, a Zelig like the Woody Allen character. That's who and what he is. As I stated in an earlier post, I kinda feel sorry for him. He is the useful idiot the left has been looking, and praying for since Stalins' day.
People need to stop worrying about who is or isn't going to vote for him. Too many people see the emperor has no clothes. Those who see the fine suit, they'll always see the fine suit until they become more mature. You can't rush the process, it is what it is.
I think the professor has edged me out in that she likes studying the reactions Zero brings out in people, not so much Zero himself. Look, I just noticed, I demean him by calling him Zero. A flaw in me, not him.(TY for that insight prof.)
Obama is what he is, what we all are, a flawed man trying to make his way through the world, and raise his family. How he does that may be outrageous to us, but I no longer have a doubt that he is doing as he sees fit. Whether the country agrees with his assessment is what is important. I prefer to believe that while there are many foolish enough to vote for his bad policies, I don't think enough will.
Getting upset about it will have no affect on the outcome though.
Let me amend that last thought. If a lot of people are like me, pushing them only gets you pushed back...let's try a little more reason, and a lot less vitriole...we'll have more success I wager.
One of the rare times I completely disagree with Althouse's premises. Not only do I not find him fascinating, to me he's tedious. I've known a dozen people just like him, only they're all self hating white liberals. He's a SWPL black guy. He's the black guy white liberals wish they were. If it were possible to shed your whiteness like an old coat and become black, there would be a million Obamas.
ChipS. You're definitely onto it here:
I have met plenty of people who use him as a blank screen upon which they project their own idiosyncratic beliefs, though.
Ann, and the libs, project onto O like crazy. He IS the blank slate. That's why he was the ideal lefty candidate. Everyman! Bingo! Everyone gets a prize! Free stuff for all! And so it goes on. We're doomed. *sigh*
Damn! I see all my points were already made while I was typing...sorry for old stuff.
ChipS, you hit on the head. Obama is Zelig!
"Fighting for peace is like screaming for quiet"
This was a sign held by a protestor outside Obama's Chicago HQ, in a crowd of anti-NATO types. Two things instantly come to mind. 1) this person does not believe the immensely incorrect axiom "Violence never solved anything" and 2) this person has never had children.
Provided that you're a normal, caring parent that doesn't yell about everything all the time, screaming for quiet works very well, but you've got to come from the diaphragm. You have to make the house shake.
tim maguire @ 12:09
I think his comment comes closest to my feeling.
If I'm facinated about anything; it's what is claimed for and about him with little or no evidence. He floats through life leaving almost no residual evidence of his passing, and yet keeps getting wafted up to the next rung of the ladder showing little or no effort, much less results.
Smartest President ever with no accademic transcripts or glowing faculty rememberances. An editor of the Harvard Law Review with seemingly no articles of his own. A community organizer with no example of a community successully organized. A state senator whose papers while in office have yet to be released. A constituional law "professor," at the U of Chicago no less, with no academic writings, and apparantly no former students to vouch for his briliance. A US senator who voted present more often than not and has no legislative accomplishments worthy of note. A gifted speaker who stumbles without his teleprompter. A President whose major legislative accomplihments were farmed out to the democratic leadership and show little presidential direction. A man who finds himself so interesting that the only paper trail he's left behind are two(!) autobiographies.
So what's interesting to me is not Obama, but the long history of others willing perhaps eager to promote him. To me he is identical to the proverbial token figurehead that a company uses to qualify for minority set-asides.
It just hit me, Obama would be perfect for Secretary of State. No real power, able to blend in into any society, no real big ideas of his own(just doing what others tell him), inoffensive, likes to go to exotic locales. I always did prefer Hillary for Pres.(of the 2)
"I can see the hardest nosed Commenters here getting legal opinions ready on how they can effectively ban Ann Althouse from The Althouse Blog for heretical speech."
Leaving Meade in charge, thus completing his decade long plan for Althousian domination!
Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh. Maniacal laugh.
Carnifex said...
It just hit me, Obama would be perfect for Secretary of State.
But for which nation? giveyou
I think he's more likely to wind up running the UN--they have no national interests.
"Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story."
- Ann Althouse
"It's almost like a cosmic joke to fall in love with someone who's living a big lie."
- Reille Hunter
I want a star on the fridge of life, Goddamnit,...
Creack - you've redeemed yourself in my eyes.
Lying isn't interesting. If it was my ex-wife would be the most interesting person in the world. What's interesting is being able to teach me something, show me something new, have a new idea, create something. Obama's has none of that, has done none of that.
His every statement is predictable, his every idea stale. I can't imagine spending the weekend with him and enjoying it. Imagine talking with GHW Bush about flying bombers in WWII and crashing in the ocean, about all the stuff he did after the war. Bill Clinton has plenty of life and ideas. For better or for worse, he's a scintillating conversationalist. Obama's as boring and dreary as a winter day in early March when you're hoping for the change of seasons to come early.
OT: that "giveyou" in my last comment was part of the word verification...how did it wind up in my comment?
OT: that "giveyou" in my last comment was part of the word verification...how did it wind up in my comment?
It's a glitch in the matrix and happens when they change something locally. QUICK! CHECK THE WINDOWS FOR BRICKS!!!
@CLittle
Forgot the UN(or the Un, according to IDIOCRACY)...perfect. We could disown him completely then. Future democrats could visit the "time masheen" and see how Obama saved the world from Charlie Chaplin, and his Nazi dinosaurs.
The Belmont Club has a more interesting post.
The Democratic Underground is worried that the Sixth Army may not be able to take Stalingrad: “Walker up by 9-points in new WI Recall poll, WI Dems upset with DNC”. Wisconsin was where the Unions were going to demonstrate their invincible power. Maybe that’s not going to happen.
"It just hit me, Obama would be perfect for Secretary of State."
Or, better yet, he could do weekend updates on E! News.
Wisconsin was where the Unions were going to demonstrate their invincible power. Maybe that’s not going to happen.
How invincible can you be when so much of your effort goes to protecting the least competent in your group?
Dadvocate has it exactly! You couldnt have a conversation, interesting or otherwise, with this man. Oddly for the president of the US this guy actually hasnt done much.
Wisconsin was where the Unions were going to demonstrate their invincible power.
A couple soothing words from Mike Tromka could easily reverse that Walker lead.
A couple soothing words from Mike Tromka could easily reverse that Walker lead.
That "poll" was from a campaign donor, and that was their first "poll". Haha. Suckers.
Biologists at Detrick consider the study of diseases like Ebola 'fascinating' too. What's different is they are doing so in a controlled environment. We do not enjoy that protection.
Lots of contributors to the thread about whether someone is interesting or not.
My humble suggestion is to give the topic of Obama the appropriate interest at the next opportunity.
Althouse: "Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story."
Meh. Lying tediously confuses the picture.
I believe this thread could have stopped at 5/14/12 12:14 PM.
Simultaneously, he's boring! Which is interesting.
This comment reminds me of a famous Basho haiku, translated by Robert Aitken:
A day when Fuji
is obscured by misty rain!
That's interesting.
The comment is more interesting than the subject. Althouse is interesting. It's interesting that she finds Obama interesting.
As for me, I find him almost impossibly dreary. What if, under that peevish, passive, parsing exterior, there's just a core of dullness?
Interesting. Like a car wreck.
Is this a beer commercial?
This fascination with the President would have been a lot more useful four years ago.
It doesn't matter now, because we know how Obama governs.
All the e-ink spilled over "vetting" Obama is a waste of time. It's like the liberals' fascination with George W. Bush's past even after he'd been reelected. Who cares?
What's in Obama's autobiographies is what he wanted to write in them at the time, and he wrote what was convenient at the time. That's all. It has little or nothing to do with what is useful to him or to us in the present.
I'm not terribly interested about what goes on inside people's heads. I care what they do. Obama has done a lot, more than enough for us to decide who to vote for. Delving into other people's psyches does more to reveal our own bias than any insight gained into our target's.
Henry, that's the second time you've mentioned the Aitken book; I'll have to check it out.
One I know:
A brushwood gate and for a lock, this snail.
A tabla rasa writ larger than life itself by dint of his presidency.
I'm pretty sure tabla is a traditional drum played by Indians from India and all of the numerous countries that were once part of the British empire.
The most interesting character you've seen emerge in your lifetime? Geesh, that's just really sad.
Quick, pick one of the following people to be trapped in an elevator with for one hour, just you and this other person, you can chat about whatever while you wait to be rescued, ask whatever you want, try to draw the person out, see what you can learn: Axl Rose, Tim Tebow, Stephen King, David Petraeus, Queen Elizabeth or President Obama.
And you'd pick Obama? He's not even the most interesting President we've had in your lifetime. Which hands down has to be Bill Clinton.
I don't even think he's the most interesting person with the last name Obama. Michelle is far more intriguing.
Ah..c'mon. It's all about the crease in his pants and the subsequent thrill up the leg.
(Romney is still short)
Belmont Club on the mystery of Obama, as more patterned than just lying.
Lying is interesting. There's so much more to delve into that with someone who tells a straight story
But, professor, he's a politician. Lying in politics isn't interesting, it's a cliche.
This strikes me as is hilarious.
I can see the hardest nosed Commenters here getting legal opinions ready on how they can effectively ban Ann Althouse from The Althouse Blog for heretical speech.
One can disagree and not seek to ban. It is actually possible to do that.
Seven of Nine is responsible for the 21st Century bankruptcy of the former United States of America?
I still don't get why Ryan dropped out. Let's say everything in the sealed divorce records that his ex-wife and he asked to not be unsealed was true.
He was having kinky sex with a hottie. In what world is that a negative?
I would put Churchill as the most interesting world leader. Obama would be in the top 10, but not the top 5.
Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, both Roosevelts, Reagan, LBJ, Nixon, Clinton, de Gaulle, Petain, and Thatcher are all markedly more interesting people than Oblanda.
My life would be interesting also if it were completely made up like Obama's life.
Revenge is a dish best served cold :)
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